Warren: “He [Hatton] Shouldn’t Have Taken the Fight” – News

By Boxing News - 05/11/2009 - Comments

By Eric Thomas: In an article in The Sun, promoter Frank Warren says that Ricky Hatton made a big mistake of choosing to fight Filipino star Manny Pacquiao, saying that Hatton was “always likely to lose.” Warren points out that Hatton went out and signed up Floyd Mayweather Sr., but the relationship didn’t work out and the two ended up not on speaking terms by the end of the training camp for the Pacquiao fight.

Indeed, Mayweather Sr. recently said in an interview that he unhappy with the arrangement that Hatton had with an assistant trainer Lee Beard, who reportedly trained Hatton when Mayweather Sr. wasn’t around.

Besides that, Hatton wasn’t happy with Mayweather Sr. occasionally showing up late for his training sessions.

Warren feels that Hatton couldn’t adapt to Mayweather Sr’s defensive style of boxing. You can say that again. It looks like Hatton fought almost entirely the same way that he did prior to Mayweather Sr. becoming his trainer. Honestly, except for a few occasions where Hatton threw a token jab or two against Pacquiao, I couldn’t see the head movement, jabbing or the ability to get out of the way of Pacquiao’s shots.

Mayweather Sr. was big on Hatton covering up protecting himself from shots as he went forward. However, Hatton wasn’t covering up much as he plunged ahead against Pacquiao and looked like a mini Titanic trying to ram his ship straight through an iceberg instead of trying to avoid.

It was only obvious that Pacquiao, with his lightning fast hand speed, boxing ability, accurate punches and huge power, was going to be able to take advantage of Hatton’s nonexistent defense and light him up with big shots.

Hatton might have been able to snap out of it if he had truly learned Mayweather Sr’s style instead of merely mimicking the results in training. However, as if he had no clue what to do against Pacquiao’s style, Hatton kept pushing forward leading with his face and taking big shots, and blocking most of them with his head.

Warren pointed out how Hatton had been putting on weight in between fights by “binge drinking.” Warren was dead on correct with that, although I never realized Hatton was a big drinker until I saw the video of Hatton by a Las Vegas poolside following his loss to Pacquiao.

Hatton was seen drinking one beer after another, often sitting alone and refilling his glass over and over again. I was getting a hangover just watching him, and I couldn’t imagine a world class athlete like Hatton drinking like that, since his body is what brought him to this point and you would think that Hatton would be extra careful about what he was putting into it.

I don’t know if Hatton drinks like this more than one or two days a week, but if he does, I don’t know how he could have lasted this long in boxing. Hatton was seriously putting those beers down in Vegas after the fight, and it was weird to see him drinking alone much of the time with his fiancé swimming in the pool.



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